Nothing Pure) Part 1
by k.f
Summary: This story is old + long.... It's set in the Comic storyline just after Robotnic is defeated. A rift into another dimention opens on the Floating island and a dark and powerful new enemy force allys itself with the Dark Legion. Part1 revolves around the


  
  
Warning: The following story is rated M-13 for extreme melodrama not   
suitable for.... well, anyone.  
The story Is Fanfiction. The characters are © Their Creators (Sega   
and Archie for the most part) and used without permission. Except for   
the non- Dark Legion villains which are by me.  
  
  
It was then the silence lifted, or rather he became aware of the noise   
that had always been in the background.   
The white creature found very little in his mind which he could grasp.   
The concepts of who he was, where he were all shadows, yet they were   
THERE and that, in itself, was enough. A faint yet certain knowledge that   
this would all make sense in time prevented panic but it was cold,   
and his head throbbed...  
  
"So long since the last beginning.....so long since I've seen the   
light.....so long...how....How LONG has it really been?" he   
wondered as the dim, familiar, green light hit his sleepy eyes.   
The light had pierced the shell of darkness where he had   
existed for... so long...   
  
He felt a sudden rush, disoriented as the thick fluid in his pod   
thawed and warmed, he was able to feel his body again.   
The scenes outside were distorted by a wall of water but as he lifted   
his head and for the first time he could see the outside, vaguely as the   
bottom of a murky pool yet still enough to remember. He remembered gleaming   
metal capsules; like the one he was in, a gleaming metal floor, a network   
of immaculately clean pipes running everywhere along the walls and ceiling   
all connect to the capsules or other machines, it seemed to be a large room   
with some enormous, complicated, flashing machine in the center. A work   
of beauty and poetry and a credit to technology.   
There was a serene feeling that seemed to radiate here; a harmony and  
balance. All of it was so real yet seen from his memory rather than his eyes.   
The memories seemed to come to him as tiny drops of life giving rain on a   
scorched desert.   
He became more aware of the icy cold around him as it slowly faded sending  
chills straight down through his bones. He became aware that he was drawing  
stale air from a mask suspended by tubes and wires from the outside that  
covered his snout. He lifted a hand to touch the side of his metal shell   
and realized that his shoulders were being held by steel restraints as   
well as his hips. They were like warm, comforting hands, not meant to trap   
him but to protect him.   
He carefully moved his arm within the limitations of the restraints and   
scratched at the hard cold steel. He felt a great need to leave the pod,   
as a young one feels a need to leave it's egg or womb.  
This pod; This metal shell was his egg He felt a burning desire to break   
out, to be born.   
  
The fluid slowly started draining through a hole in the bottom  
of the pod and it was soon gone. The air mask and the restraints  
snapped open and he fell on the still damp floor of the pod. His first  
breaths in ages could be seen as icy clouds in the bitter cold air.   
As he got up and looked once again through the window. He was   
shocked to see a strange face, and the stranger seemed just as shocked   
to see him. The face slipped to the right and was now out of view.  
It had been a red echidna, rather old. One eye glistening metal   
and he wore a gray hood with a green pendant. He looked vaguely like   
someone he once knew, someone he trusted...  
  
Kragok drew back instantly upon seeing that face. It was like seeing the  
face of a ghost. A strange unnatural creature, he thought. Not an echidna  
at all, but an echidna mutated and mixed with the blood of several lower   
creatures.   
Those eyes he had seen...were striking, dark red and terrifying, the   
first time he saw those eyes would haunt his nightmares, yet   
the look in them seemed like that of an innocent child.   
As the door of that first shiny pod began to open he   
wondered if there was any way to go back, to never have come here.  
If only he had never brought the troops back to the old base  
they never would have found...this...just waiting. The curiosity to   
explore had been just burning but now the fire was now icy fear   
had taken over it's place.   
  
The pod door swung up and there was a cloud of steam, this room   
was colder than his pod had been; in the back of his mind he knew why,  
but he could grasp nothing now, all these sights and   
impulses, coming at him all at once were less like the rain and more   
like hail stones.   
The cool air hit his wet fur for the first time in....how long was it?  
He stepped out cautiously, nearly tripping as he took his first steps  
and surveyed the dark hall.   
Data on black screens in strange green letters on the giant computer   
control center in the middle of the room seemed foreign yet familiar.   
The green glow from spherical lights hanging from the roof was   
practically the only light.   
He glanced at the line of more than a hundred large metal pods   
along the wall with pipes and wires filtering into them, there was   
also a whole wall of stacked baby sized pods beyond number and   
seemed to somehow know that each contained a living form like him.  
Then there was a sudden flash of memory... Emotions and people   
with no events to tie them all together.   
  
The gray robed echidna stood in front of him, there were also a   
number of black robed ones hovering around the computers and a  
clustered semi circle seemed to be forming around him at a   
safe distance. He couldn't tell if they were all echidna,   
their faces were hidden for the most part but from what he could   
see they wore expressions of disgust and fear. The gray robbed one   
smiled an uneasy diplomatic sort of smile (trying to mask his fear   
and disgust, it seemed.)   
As the creature stood there, soaking wet and cold in front of   
the strangers who had invaded his home, awakened him from blissful  
slumber and were now scrutinizing him, he felt similar pangs of  
fear and disgust. Their black cloaks looked familiar it seemed and   
he could recall wearing a similar one himself...  
  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
This was long before the pods an the hibernation Mobius   
was in a dismal state.   
The Black Horde was pulling strings silently from behind the scenes  
at first, Fireants and their enemies the Snowcrabs, unable to even tolerate  
each other's existence were raging towards a boiling point in their   
ancient war. Outside attempts of diplomacy from all nations failed   
and it was clear that all of Mobius would be the battlefield... and   
the prize in a three-sided war.  
This was the purpose for their creation. An army of identical,   
perfect warriors was the goal. Ones who could survive the harsh conditions  
of a battle between fire and ice yet were still perfectly expendable.  
The Black Horde's scientists could finally be allowed permission   
from the king to make full, living, genetically altered experiments. A  
thought that would have distressed everyone on the planet... if   
they knew.  
  
Every attempt was a failure. A genetically engineered animal that   
was a perfect fighter could not be made and the termination of   
experiment was ordered straight from the throne. An order to terminate   
over 500 living experiments.  
  
Garok, a Scientist and Black Horde officer was head of the project, It   
was thanks to him that so many escaped, or momentarily delayed their   
fate. Slowly the hunt began for the lost, living experiments.  
Initially loyal to their purpose of protecting Mobius, they offered   
their service to the crown and were rejected.  
  
As their deaths were ordered by the government, by the Black Horde and  
their existence generally not tolerated by civilians it was apparent to   
the Genetic experiments that any further attempts  
to offer help to the mobians would be met with mistrust or contempt.  
So, they went into hiding, still intent on stopping the Fireant's war   
themselves and proving their superiority and rite to co-exist alongside   
the normal ones.   
It was then that the Black Horde offered them security once again. They   
were not about to give up such a powerful tool as this army when they were given  
a second chance to control them.  
  
It was an order from the King that would have forced them to terminate   
the experiment prematurely, not their own will, they  
explained calmly to the shunned and incensed mutants. Which was true although  
there were still those within the organization who would still have destroyed   
them at the drop of a hat. For the 'Mutants', the promise of temporary   
security and acceptance could not be passed on easily, especially when their   
chances for survival without a powerful ally such as the Horde was almost nil.  
  
He remembered that it took only a year with their help for the Black Horde to   
take complete control of the Mobian government. They thought that they had   
earned their acceptance but it was apparently not to be....  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
This was the Black Horde... They were from the Black Horde. They were among the   
ones who had used his people for their own gains, promising them   
acceptance and a home when they ruled Mobius and then   
cast them aside like trash... Now they were back? Did they not know  
how unwelcome they were?  
"(What do you want?)" He thought, too scared to say it out loud.  
"(They obviously wanted to use our power again. The genetically altered  
warriors are undoubtedly still the most powerful weapons on Mobius.  
If Black Horde wants OUR services again then the battle must be very  
great, indeed. They must know by now that we are too dangerous to be   
treated as pawns.   
I can't BELIEVE that they'd think we'd help them again!)"  
  
Then an eerie thought hit him... "(How did they get in here if the   
master had set traps to keep them out? Did they harm the master?   
Did they... kill him? Kill him for protecting us?)"   
  
Kragok's first instinct was to have one of his men blast it, send it back   
to the underworld where it belongs... but it seemed too scared to prove  
a threat right now.   
The shocking outward appearance seemed to foster no danger  
within. It's outside appearance fluctuated between anger and fear.   
His troops were growing anxious waiting for something to happen,   
several reached nervously under their robes for their blasters. If for  
nothing else, only to feel the security of holding them.   
  
Listening to the uneasy silence and shuffling Kragok again regretted   
coming back to the old base. He had been so surprised to see it rebuilt   
and so different in such a short time that he wanted to explore to see   
what changes were made and possibly find out by whom.   
He should have thought why who ever had fixed all this damage   
had abandoned their work once it was done... It was too late to go back,  
the decisions had been made. Their own curiosity had started this, there   
was no turning back now.   
  
It looked around at the crowd of about eight or so dark legion members.   
Each of them diverted their eyes as he tried to meet the stare of each one.   
He was an albino echidna it would have seemed from a distance, white fur   
and red eyes a rare occurrence in itself but his abnormalities extended   
beyond his pigment deficiency. Though few of the  
members of the dark legion had ever seen a fire ant (even from a long   
distance) they recognized the fur covered antennae that grew from his head   
could only be from the fire ant species. His two front dreadlocks looked   
brown but upon close inspection it could be seen that they were actually  
large, working jaws; fire ant jaws.   
On his neck, chest, and shoulders he appeared to be wearing white pearly   
armor but he was otherwise naked. The Armor was actually crabshell from   
a third species that contributed to his genetic hibreeding.   
  
His antennae tingled as he sensed the hate being thrown at him from all   
sides. It would not subside and the top of his skull began to throb.  
  
Neither Kragok nor the creature was sure what was going on, each regarded  
the other as being in somewhat control of the situation right now.  
  
He was wet and cold and in miserable pain, these people would  
not even show him hospitality in his own home.   
As minutes of silence stacked up their thoughts echoed in his head   
like dull screams. It got to a level he could not bear.   
"STOP IT!" he screamed throwing up his hands. Then the fire came   
welling up within him. He could not control.... The dark legion started   
to back away... The creature's eyes seemed to get redder, it's fur was   
standing up, The Fireant jaws snapped loudly...  
  
"They look nervous now... They regret messing with my people! So stupid of   
them to come back after what they did to us, and after what we did to them!"  
He whispered.  
  
"Well, here's another taste of it, Black Horde!" He screamed.  
".......................no.................I can't do it...... I don't know  
why but I CAN'T KILL...again...now." But it was too late. He had built up too   
much power, if he kept it inside it could destroy him,  
"I can't ...keep itin... gottakeepitin.....don't let it hit.....  
channel it to ....something"   
There was only one thing that he could think to channel it to that   
nothing alive would be hurt. His own pod it was empty.   
Without it he could never hibernate again. If his brothers and sisters didn't   
wake up he would be all alone.  
He snapped his head around to face the pod, his pod, his egg. He tried   
desperately to keep the fire inside him but knew he would fail. With a   
shout he let it burst fourth from him. An explosion of flame from the   
pit of his stomach.   
He felt himself being enveloped in the fire. The pod where he  
had concentrated his fury was completely vaped. He felt drained.  
  
A smile crept onto Kragok's lips. For a moment he no longer   
regretted setting this creature free. It had chosen not to harm them   
and that meant something. If controlled he would make a valuable ally.  
He saw that this was only an innocent child; but one with extraordinary  
capabilities, if pointed in the right direction he could be the   
perfect weapon. But what if it was not content to only be a 'weapon' ?  
Who cares? Only one question remained "Who was the Black Horde   
and why had the monster called them that?" (this was the second time   
they had herd the Black Horde mentioned in this place. The first  
time had been that message that led them to this...)   
...no matter, it wasn't important now. Kragok looked around the   
strange room up and down the walls trying to estimate the number of   
capsules like this there were. Such power! He couldn't wait to see what   
was in them.   
----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
5 hours earlier: (WARNING: Flashback within a flashback coming on...  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------   
  
Julie-Su had been practically shoed away from the scene earlier that  
morning. It was a cool, cloudy day with a curtain of wet fog settling   
near the ground, yet unusually warm for the time of year.   
The floating island was at the northern peak of it's flight and well   
into it's two month snowy season.   
Only the west of the island ever froze. The Sandopolis, Lava Reef  
zones as well as the zones close to them were ice free.   
  
In the Fortress Zone a cool, depressing shade of blue-gray seemed to  
envelop everything and coat it all with gloom as sad lonely flakes  
of white peppered the ground. A dreary sight, although the Fortress   
Zone was never all that cheery anyway. The island, usually beautifully  
lush and green was cloaked in gray, misty darkness as if it were   
dressed for a funeral.   
  
Julie-Su didn't mind this kind of weather but didn't care much for   
it either. She knew there would be more snow later and everything would   
be glistening, crystal and pure white. There was a certain  
calmness in the air that hung in the wet mist and a certain feeling of   
rejuvenation in the tiny droplets of frost. Everything was still and quiet  
like a refreshing dreamfilled sleep, but it also made her very tired.   
"*Yawn*"   
She sighed heavily. She was drowsy that day and didn't feel like doing   
much of anything, it didn't help that the Dark legion had been up and about   
in the wee morning hours back at the old base.   
  
A few hours before in the Sandopolis Zone Dark Legion camp she had   
awakened to the familiar call of a loud buzzing alarm. It had startled   
her at first, like waking up to a fire alarm. After a split second of  
groggy confusion she recognized it as the call to assemble and it   
would ring on and off for a full ten minutes.   
Deep in the pit of her stomach there was an uneasy, sick, foreboding   
feeling. Like something bad was going to happen to her that day...   
Ignoring the spin-cycle washing machine that someone had turned  
on inside her she tossed the covers from her cot in a disheveled pile  
in the ground.   
"What a mess!" she thought looking at the tent in disgust. Julie-Su   
didn't own much but what she did have was scattered on the ground in   
her tent. She had no place to put anything, much like the rest of   
the Dark legion. Since they had been forced to move into camps (after   
the base was demolished) everyone complained that the living conditions   
had been severely downgraded. She stood wearily and put on one of her  
sniper's mittens that was next to her. She stepped into her large, dark  
green boots that sat by the edge of her cot and walked over to the corner   
where she had thrown her black robe. As she picked it up a tear almost  
came to her eye. Every time she saw that robe she saw the life she had   
wasted... The bell rang again and she put it on in a mad rush. Only   
two more rings and she would have to be in the meeting circle. She   
tossed items about angrily looking for her other mitten. The bell rang  
once more and she found it next to a tool box with a shiny lid. She paused   
and checked her reflection in the lid. She Yawned and wearily noticed   
that the pink face staring back at her seemed tired, nauseous and somewhat  
older.   
  
Bionic braids flailing behind her she rushed out to the meeting place as   
the last warning bell rang, just in time to be the last one there. She  
hastily pulled up her black hood to cover her head.   
Everyone shot 'late' glances at her under their own hoods. She rolled   
her violet eyes at them as if to say "I WAS on time. I got here before the  
bell stopped ringing."   
  
Up on the podium Kragok cleared his throat, and everyone looked up  
attentively. Julie-Su couldn't see him very well through the crowd but   
she didn't care (he was ugly anyway, she thought to herself) his loud,   
clear voice could be herd well from where she was.   
" I assume that we are ALL getting tired of using these primitive tents   
as a base of operation and shelter?"   
The crowd yelled in agreement. One good quality Kragok possessed, she   
grudgingly admitted, was that he was an excellent public speaker. He was   
manipulative and could make you change your mind without your even knowing   
it....That was how Julie-Su and so many others had been led into this  
army. She had lately become disillusioned and wanted out.  
After meeting a guardian (who was SUPPOSED to be their worst enemy)   
and finding out just how 'unevil' they really were she began to question   
everything that she had once been made to believe. The others in the Dark   
Legion were still influenced by Kragok, they would follow him anywhere it  
seemed.   
"I have worked out a plan for salvaging the old headquarters. The base   
that was destroyed ..."   
Julie-Su tuned out of this speech and looked at the sky. The sun could be   
seen as a dim circle covered by a sheet of grey mist. Kragok babbled on   
about the "accursed guardians" and "Our rightful place on Mobius" but  
she couldn't listen, she felt much too sick. The sinking feeling that   
came to her when she had thought of Knuckles and the freedom fighters.  
Everything turned black for a few seconds and she felt dizzy and faint.   
The next few seconds she spent in a state of limbo between pain and sleep.  
She shook it off in time to hear the last of Kragok's address,   
"...It ought to be safe by now." Kragok finished.   
  
"He seems to be implying that any danger would just go away if we  
left it alone long enough...Safe from what? "Julie-Su wondered. She   
couldn't think of any danger that would just go away. She had thought   
that the main safety concern was debris or exposed electrical wires.   
The way Kragok made it sound it was as if Knux was still waiting back   
there to get him if he tried to come back.   
  
  
Everything was packed quickly and stuffed into knapsacks. The tents were   
torn down quickly and loaded into the vehicles.   
And so with the sun still low in the sky and barely visible behind the clouds  
they set off in double file lines preceded by a wall of tanks as if   
this were a march into war and not simply a hike back to their old   
stomping grounds.   
  
The army's black flying machines hovered over them like prowling ravens.  
With each step closer they came to their destination the sinking feeling   
in Julie-Su's stomach got a little worse.   
By the end of it Julie-Su's miserableness gave way to near terror. All   
she wanted to do was get out of this line and run away.   
They soon reached the location of one of the base's old secret entrances,  
a fake tree. Kragok pulled one of the branches and opened the familiar   
passage way. The entrance was an elevator that would only carry one person   
at a time.   
  
Since there was supposed to be no power in the old base Julie-Su wondered   
if they really expected an elevator to work.   
It did work however, the false tree's trunk slid open and Kragok sent   
a scout down first to test for safety (naturally). The scout emerged safely   
but...shaken, what Julie-Su could see of his face showed   
terror and surprise. She knew that there was something wrong.   
He whispered something to Kragok. She watched his face grow angry in  
disbelief and strained to overhear their conversation, "If you're  
lying....." Kragok threatened.  
"I assure you, sir. I am not! I ........saw it myself!....restored..."  
"Completely restored?" he straightened his tattered grey cloak and looked   
around at the crowd to scan for observers. His piercing metal eye met  
Julie-Su's and she looked away yet still continued to listen.   
"Yes.!" said the scout.   
There was more said but it was too low to make out, Julie-Su couldn't   
afford to be caught listening so she didn't try, she only watched what  
was going on. Kragok motioned for a few shoulders to come over. they talked   
privately for a moment as a tired Julie-Su tried unsuccessfully to hear.   
Then he told them to go down the elevator and one by one they went with   
Kragok last. He remained to give some  
brief orders.   
"Now hear this! I want you all to remain here and are not, under any   
circumstances to follow us. If you are needed I will send for you.  
That is all." The trunk door slid closed and she watched him disappear   
through the grey mist.   



End file.
